No matter how careful you are, it’s possible to fall victim to a scam on LinkedIn. Many people use LinkedIn to find jobs, but many also use it to scam unsuspecting victims. Here’s how you can spot and avoid LinkedIn job scams.
Rules to Know Fake LinkedIn jobs
Treat private email addresses with suspicion (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.)
Scammers and identity thieves often use stolen company names and logos to pass themselves off as legitimate businesses. So, don’t relax your vigilance if you see a simple company logo or name in an email signature; double-check the email address they’re using.
Recruiters, HR representatives, and hiring legit managers will never contact you via a free personal email service like Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo!, or any other.
Checking the person’s LinkedIn profile can help you verify that they are an actual representative of the company they claim to work for. Check their first-degree connections to see if they have any at the company they claim to work for.
Never pay for employment.
It is not legit if a company claims to be hiring and then asks for money. It would help if you ran away from any situation in which you are asked to wire money for any reason, including startup expenses, fees, an initial investment, stock, or anything else.
The Federal Trade Commission warns that asking for money upfront is a red flag for a fraudulent online job opportunity. This is something that must never happen.
Please do not agree to transfer money or accept it from anyone. Scammers online may ask you to pay upfront, keep some of it as a fee for your services, and send the rest to a third party (often via wire transfer).
This money is almost always obtained dishonestly. As a job seeker, you should never agree to transfer or pass along money.
Never, ever, under any circumstances, during your job search, agree to have money deposited into any of your accounts. The request is out of the ordinary.
Using Reliable Online Employment Resource Sites
You can rest assured that legitimate employers will only contact you if you use major, trustworthy job engines like LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor.
Despite this, you must remain vigilant and adhere to the other guidelines for identifying and avoiding online job scams outlined in this article. While they do a good job of reducing the likelihood of something bad happening, you should still take precautions.
Never give an employer your full credit card number, bank account number, or PayPal account number. Many stolen credit cards are from people that provide cards to fake employers.
Never give out your Social Security number or other sensitive personal information; if someone asks for it, they are likely trying to scam you.
If your employer wants to make direct deposits into your bank account, then and only then should you give them your routing number and account number. However, this information should only be shared once you’ve met the prospective employer.
Never disclose such details during a phone or video interview. Only give out personal information once you have had at least one in-person interview with the company and determined its legitimacy.
If you are applying for a job that does not require regular in-person travel, like working from home, wait to give out your direct deposit info until you have signed a contract. This is a sound principle to keep in mind when conducting any employment search. Any request for your direct deposit information before starting your employment should raise red flags, so be wary of any company that does so during the interview process.
Check out the job posting thoroughly before applying.
Make sure you fully understand each position description before applying. Examine the document for grammatical or spelling mistakes and questionable phrases such as “wire transfer,” etc.
You should always be carefully reviewing the job you are applying for so you can quickly “tailor” your resume to the position to get more interviews and write a great cover letter to catch the employer’s attention; doing so will help you spot potential online job scams and is good advice in general when searching for work.
Search Google and social media for information about the company and its culture before applying.
It’s a good idea to do an internet search whenever you come across a company name you need to familiarize yourself with.
Simply conducting a Google search for their name will yield results for recent news articles and their website.
Look for company profiles on popular sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
You can learn more about the company’s legitimacy and the integrity of its employees by checking out its website, recent news coverage, and social media profiles.
Specifically, you should avoid “previously undisclosed” job postings in the federal government.
Therefore, you should never pay to gain access to federal government job listings or believe a source that claims to have access to “undisclosed” or “hidden” listings that aren’t publicly available, as this information is always freely available and publicly recommended by the FTC (they recommend using usajobs.gov).
Pay Extra Attention to Safety Measures When Looking for Work from Home
In general, remote or work-from-home jobs are legitimate, but you should take extra precautions to ensure you’re not being scammed.
Since you won’t be able to check out the business physically, you should take extra precautions to ensure it’s legitimate. Here are some suggestions for how to get there:
- Check out their official website if you’re interested.
- Check out the organization’s social media pages.
- Conducting a company name search on Google and Google News
- You can verify the legitimacy of the company’s representative(s) and their connections within the organization by using LinkedIn.
How To Spot Fake Jobs On Linkedin
To complement the above measures, using only reputable job search websites is important when looking for remote work online. Another defense against bogus remote work opportunities.
1. Research the company. Before applying for a job, do your research on the company that is offering the position. Check their website and social media presence, and search online reviews. It may be a scam if you need help finding information about the company.
2. Watch out for red flags. Is the job posting too good to be true? Are they offering an unusually high salary or asking for personal information? These are all signs of a potential scam. Additionally, be wary if the job description is vague and there’s no contact information.
3. Verify the person you’re dealing with. If you’re contacted by someone claiming to represent a company, make sure they’re really who they say they are. Ask for their official email address or phone number to verify it against what the company has listed on their website.
4. Don’t pay anyone upfront. Legitimate employers will never ask for money from you in exchange for a job opportunity. If someone asks for payment, it’s probably a scam, and you should avoid it at all costs.
5. Report suspicious activity to LinkedIn. If you encounter a questionable job post or a scammer, you can report them to LinkedIn. This helps keep the platform safe and free of fraudulent activity.
By following these tips, you can stay safe and avoid falling victim to job scams on LinkedIn. Remember that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is! Be wary and always do your research before applying for a job. Good luck!
Red Flags of Fake Jobs
Following are red flags of Fake Jobs LinkedIn Jobs.
It’s a Money Scam
There is always cause for concern when this occurs. Period. It would help if you didn’t put out cash to get a job unless you’re buying a franchise or going into business for yourself as a contractor. Executives can pay for top-tier placement services but will not use LinkedIn. Both legitimate companies and temp agencies (whose revenue comes from their client companies, but you already know that) do not require candidates to pay any fees to be considered for employment.
They jump right to requesting sensitive information.
At some point, after a few interviews and a flurry of emails and phone calls, you will be asked for your social security number before starting a new job. There are times when this data is also used for verification purposes. A direct deposit form requesting your banking information may be among the paperwork you’ll need to complete after being hired. Take into account the time it took you to do this at your previous job. After you reply to the LinkedIn message, you’ll be asked for personal information like your social security number and bank account details.
Major warning sign! Put any emails that ask you to provide personal data to complete a background check, credit report, or another form online in the trash immediately. It would help if you also looked for a “phishing” box in whichever email service you use. Never, ever give information that can be used for identity fraud, especially when searching for apartments online, where such scams are prevalent. The FBI reports an average loss from responding to a fraudulent job posting is $3,000. Always investigate any new company that contacts you to ensure it’s legit. Please make sure the person recruiting you is who they say they are and not someone else impersonating them.
High Pay
You’d likely give little consideration to an online ad for a beach rental if the price were $400 per month. It would be immediately obvious that this was a false promise. However, the longer people are out of work, the more they yearn to believe that their big break is just around the corner. It’s possible but won’t involve making six figures doing Amazon ads or product assembly from home. A fake job is more likely to be found on LinkedIn if the salary is significantly higher than expected.
Only some make-believe positions pay well. Salespeople can get some of their excellent pay rates here. Jobs in sales that pay only commission are risky in most cases. If you have no prior experience in sales but are being asked to do so with the promise of thousands of dollars in profits, it is probably different from what it seems. It could be for a door-to-door sales position or to get you to buy “samples.” The “salespeople” who purchase product kits from many multi-level marketing companies are the primary source of revenue. In an ad, words like “salary potential” or “earn cash quick” are red flags that it’s a scam.
Remember that the U.S. Department of Labor mandates that employees be paid at least the federal minimum wage, even if they ask you to work for free during a “training period.” As you search for work, you should consider the average salary for the position you’re applying for and what you’re willing to settle for. It’s fair to inquire about salary setting if you’re being offered a significant discount.
The authenticity of the advertisement is questionable.
A red flag is if the company’s website looks like it was made by your sister, who is 13, rather than a professional. Likewise, the original post’s spelling errors, jumbled sentences, and sloppy grammar are red flags. Signs like these usually point to a foreign scammer, as people from the past suspected anglo french avoider of scams. Would you want to work for someone so careless with the details, even if it were a real company? Only respond to postings that look worse than an elementary school book report if you’re looking to be hired as an editor for people who need one (in which case, you should get some of your pay upfront).
Conclusion
Job scams are common on LinkedIn for job seekers looking for a dream job offer, but there are ways to protect yourself. You can avoid becoming a victim by being aware of the signs of a job scam. If you fall for a fake check scam, don’t hesitate to reach out for help. The LinkedIn team is here to assist you in resolving any issues that may arise from job scams. Have you ever been targeted by a job scam on LinkedIn? What tips do you have to avoid confusion about real job opportunities with fake jobs that offer quick money? More Blog And Follow YouTube Channel
